Sam Quinones on Meth, Fentanyl, and the Least of Us

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2021

⏱️ 82 minutes

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Summary

Author and journalist Sam Quinones talks about his book, The Least of Us, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Quinones focuses on the devastation caused by methamphetamine and fentanyl, the latest evolution of innovation in the supply of mind-altering drugs in the United States. The latest versions of meth, he argues, are more emotionally damaging than before and have played a central role in the expansion of the homeless in tent encampments in American cities. The conversation includes an exploration of the rising number of overdose deaths in the United States and what role community and other institutions might play in reducing the death toll.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:07.8	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover
0:12.6	Institution. Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode and
0:17.8	find links down there information related to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives,
0:23.2	but every episode we've done going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econtalk.org. We'd
0:30.3	love to hear from you. Today is September 1st, 2021 and my guest is author and journalist Sam
0:42.7	Kenyones. His latest book and the topic of today's episode is The Least of Us,
0:48.7	True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Math. Sam was last here in January of
0:54.8	2017 talking about opioids in heroin and his book Dreamland. I wouldn't let parents know that
1:00.4	today's episode will deal with adult themes, some of which you may want your children to hear,
1:04.6	but you may not. That's up to you. Sam, welcome back to econtalk.
1:09.7	Great to be here, Russ. Thanks so much. I love your podcast.
1:12.6	I appreciate that. I love your writing in your book. This is a very powerful book. It is heartbreaking
1:22.3	in many parts. It's incredibly informative. I learned some things that I'd been puzzled about
1:28.4	that really helped me understand some of the things that are going on in America.
1:32.4	It forms something of a trilogy with recent episodes with Johan Hari and Nareena Hertz.
1:37.2	Maybe as Sam, you're self-suggested, Michael Easter. I hope to pull some of those themes together
1:43.9	in talking today. I want to start with the magnitude of the drug overdose problem in the United States.
1:52.0	How serious is it? Well, I think it's quite serious. We are hitting record levels of overdose deaths.
2:00.8	That is a deep and profound tragedy that is coast to coast. I would say that that's what
2:09.8	differentiates this opioid epidemic from the one that we had in the 70s, which was really just a
2:15.4	heroin overdose. That was very isolated. It was certain urban areas, really New York, L.A.,
	...

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